Meta

Month: September 2015

You will create a WordPress blog to feature all of your best work from Digital Photography. A blog allows you to post images and write about them. Every assignment in Digital Photography will have some of your writing to go along with it.

Your Photographer’s Bio: Write a one paragraph description of yourself as a photographer. Whatever WordPress “Free Photography” template you choose, make sure your Bio is easily accessible from the start page, when you arrive at the blog (it might be the “About Me” section somewhere on the side or top of the page).

Go back to the websites you looked at featuring color photographers, or the website of any photographer you admire. Read their bios.

Write a 5-7 sentence paragraph describing yourself as a photographer. If you like, start with the sentence, “——— (your name) is a photography student at Concord Carlisle High School in Concord, MA.”

Sentences 2 through 4 or 5 should describe who you are as a photographer. This could be, what you like taking photos of, what stories you like to tell with photography, what draws you to photography visually, what photography means to you personally or culturally, who has influenced your work (well-known photographers who you follow), and so on.

Conclude with one sentence to tie it all together. This can be a nod to the future (what you will do next or continue doing as a photographer), your ambitions, how photography fits into your life going forward (in high school and perhaps beyond).

Add a photo of yourself to your blog. You may use a photo you already have, have a friend take a new photo, take a self portrait, or use an original image that represents you (something you shoot, but not of you). Wrap your text around your bio image.

You blog should have both words and images. What is the story behind your photographs? How did you choose to shoot your story? Writing about your images is an opportunity to show us what you have been thinking about, what motivated you, and how thoughtful you are as a photographer.

Write about the content of your images. What is the story? Who, what, where and when? What is the meaning of this place to the people there, and / or to you personally? What is the story you were trying to tell? What did you learn about the subject while on location? Why is it important for us to see?

Write about the style of your photography. Why did you approach your subject in this way? Highlight your choices as a photographer: Angle, color, proximity to subject (distance), framing, details. Did you call attention to yourself when shooting (interact with your subject) or were you more of a “fly on the wall?” Did you go in with a plan (a list of shots you wanted), or discover visually as you spent time on location? What were the problems visually and how did you solve them?

Objective: For your first Digital Photography assignment, you will explore color photography while learning the digital camera.

Follow these steps:

Identify a place or event that has visual interest to you. “Visual interest” means:

A lot going on; action; the place is “alive” with color and activity.

There are a lot of interesting shapes, textures, movement, and color. The color can be bold and saturated or soft and subtle; it can be varied or monochromatic; it can be natural or manmade.

This place or event should ALSO be of narrative or emotional interest to you. “Narrative / Emotional Interest” means that there is a story there that you can write about. It can be a place or activity that shows us a tradition, a history, a culture, a ceremony, leisure, work, or so on. There can be people who are “characters” in your story–or not. You may have a connection to these people or this place, or are learning about them through photography. There is emotion here. Even objects can be sad, nostalgic, joyous, or funny. Places can tell stories about the people who have been there. People, of course, express emotion through their clothing, gestures, expressions and actions–all of which you can record with a photograph.

Spend at least two hours photographing this place or event. This can be broken up into smaller pieces (i.e., you may return to the location at various times), or one longer shoot.

Take notes. You will be expected to write about this place or event later.

You must shoot at least 150 images.

At least 20 images should be in black and white. While you are shooting, switch back and forth between black and white and color. Try to see the place or event in both ways.

Start bringing the images into Lightroom as soon as you have them.

Finish shooting within two weeks.

Finish processing 10 or more images using the Developing module in Adobe Lightroom during the third week of the project.

Start a WordPress blog of your own. This project will be the first post on your blog.

On your blog, you will also do some writing, about your project and yourself (a photographer’s bio) …the writing assignment will be given in class later.

You will make at least one large format inkjet print. Your teacher will choose the print from your final ten!

See the CALENDAR for Digital Photography in the upper right corner of this blog for project deadlines.